Here's why slicing mattered. The short version Everyone takes slicing because it generated a huge sum of credits. People send those credits off to alts which craft goods. Since slicers can't craft their own goods at least not without buying stuff on GTN they have to spend those credits. Those credits find their way into the pockets of the crafters who then make bank selling a level 15 green for 10-15k due to inflation. That one green pays for level ups and everything else for at least two levels. Tell me how this doesn't sound good to you? And tell me why you are Pro-"I want everyone to be broke all the time just like my characters"

Many people who were for slicing claimed this was going to happen as soon as the nerf came down... Best part? It's going to continue to drop for at least a few more days. I expect you'll hit the 40-50k per day income playing the market before the end.

Make a character, Go gather slicing nodes. Let us know how much you make. probably somewhere right around 18 credits a minute?

In my opinion the goal of slicing was to cause inflation. If slicing wasn't an issue in the closed betas or internal testing then why is it an issue now. Now people hear "Inflation" and think bad thoughts, however a balance of inflation and deflation is required for a stable market. As the OP said right now there are more money sinks than actual income. I think slicing was the last skill created for the game to balance out the rest of them. Slicing created money to allow players to buy and sell goods for "cheap". Overall Good post OP I hope bioware decides to act upon this sooner as opposed to later. As it stands I've canceled my sub until they release official word on the matter.

Lets just complain at Bioware until everything gets nerfed to the point of uselessness. Make one tradeskill so everyone can craft the same things, then everyone will be happy right?

Because 13-20 credits per hour is useful.

You're wrong. I'm putting it this simply for you. Inflation would catch up to slicing and the income generated by it would plateau. Read an economics book You can only print so much money before you have to print larger quantities. Slicing would not be able to print larger quantities and would phase it's self out. You're looking at the immediate as opposed to 3 weeks or a month down the road. The economy is going to be in shambles by then. there won't be enough credits in circulation to make doing anything profitable.

They don't need to touch it. Just leave it's generation alone and it will balance it's self and eventually just be ran for the schematics and missions.

Raximillian you're missing the point. Lets say I generate 100k per companion per hour slicing. I send all 5 companions out every hour for 6 hours I have 3 million credits! hell yeah I'm rich! Oh what's this? everything in the market place has inflated to 200k+ per item? And now that 100k per hour isn't all that much now is it?

The problem being now that the market as a whole is underinflated. Slicing worked on a 'diminishing returns' effect, which you would learn about in any economics class. I suggest you go take one.

Because they don't know what they are talking about. They haven't looked at the big picture.

My final input on the matter: There are two places you spend money in this game. Static costs that will not change (training, vendors, skills) Dynamic costs that change over time (player trade - crafted goods and the like) As slicing increased the total wealth of the player base it would reach a point at which the income it generated would be so insignificant to the total amount that was in circulation that it would be worthless on its own. Crafted good would continue to increase in value and never deflate due to the large demand for them and the surplus of credits. With the nerf slicing has/will reach a point that it is no longer worth the time for the credits that it returns reaching the plateau of it's total credit generation much earlier. With the cut of credits going into the economy everything had it's prices drop to the point that it's no longer profitable to craft at all. People are scrimping and saving for their trainings and speeder skills as opposed to buying that piece of loot of the market place because "My gear is good enough" How can you tell that the market is in a terrible way? You can't sell mats for over the cost of the mission, which in and of it's sell tells you that the market needs to inflate. Inflation in and of it's self is not a bad thing. The people QQing about slicing have shot themselves in the foot. I know I'm not buying anything on the GTN because I don't have the money to do so while keeping up with my skills, crafting training, speeder training, And repairs every level. The slicing nerf was unnecessary because it would balance it's self out eventually. The damned game has been out two weeks including the prestart. They should have waited a month before nerfing anything to get a better idea of what is going to happen. Prediction of what would have happened had they not nerfed Slicing: After a week or two of people changing skills over to slicing there would be money everywhere and it would be burning a hole in their pocket. The people that stuck with the crafting professions would be able to charge exorbitant prices for the lowest of goods and take a fair chunk of that change for themselves. The slicers having no trade skills to turn out their own equipment would then be forced to go to the GTN to pick up new equipment or craft it on an alt. They would still have to send money to the alt to cover mission costs and whatever else, further spreading the wealth. After two or three weeks of mass money generation from slicing it would plateau and would no longer be worth the time invested, much like it is now. Not that it wouldn't turn a profit but the profit would be so insignificant compared to the amount of credits in circulation that they could make more money other ways such as Crafting goods and selling them their selves. slicing would stop until it became a decent way to generate profit again. If this is a portent to how BW is going to take care of problems and not take the time and effort to see if a change is going to upset balance then I don't know if I want to be around for the next patch. Wait till people start QQing over how buff a class is and see bioware nerf it into oblivion next. My suggestion? Put slicing how it was, wait till the end of next month, if people are still complaining about it's money generation nerf it then. BW jumped the gun and stunted the growth of the economy in the game due to an overzealous reaction to a number of people who had very limited knowledge of the outcome of slicing 'needing' nerfed. Slicing didn't need to be 'fixed' it would balance out over time and then would put pressure on Bioware to come up with more things for the players to spend money on. TL;DR: Spiders rely on a combination of muscle and hemolymph (blood) pressure to move their legs. Some joints in spider legs lack extension muscles entirely.

I've come to the conclusion that slicing was never broken to begin with. People cried for nerfs too early. Slicing added balance to the economy. Yes, Slicing put tons of money into the economy. Yes it's going to inflate the prices of all crafted goods. This is a good thing. All the crafted goods would then sell for a profit. Currently, at least on the server I'm playing on, the GTN is underused. People cant sell their crafted goods for a profit due to the overhead of just paying your companion to go on the missions (Such as Underworld Trading). Why don't they sell for a profit? No one else has the money to buy them at a profit because of the cost of their own crafting. Who had the money to pay for those goods? Slicers generated money for the economy, Allowing players to sell their goods for a profit. However now that people have complained because "Slicers have money and I don't" you won't have money. You won't be able to sell your goods for a profit, and in turn won't be able to afford to keep your crafting evenly leveled with your character. Over all the crafting system was balanced around the obscene generation of money made possible by slicing. TL;DR: Peanuts aren't actually nuts, they are a 'Legume' or Bean.

This a million times over.

Now I'm going to try logic on this one for you guys, though I know it has no place on the internet. Gathering Mats/boxes from nodes = Time spent looking for nodes. (not an issue when you're questing anyway. So I'm excluding this on the assumption that anyone with half a brain is collecting nodes.) Sending a companion for a mission to gain a mat = Gaining a mat which can be used to craft. Sending a companion for a Box to gain credits = POTENTIAL loss of credits When you're looking for mats, you send your companion out because you know what you want, and generally what your going to get. If you send your companion for a Metal, you're going to get some metal. When you're looking for a Box, you send your companion out hoping to turn a positive result on an investment. Whereas when you are looking for mats you always gain an item that can be used, in Slicing you now have a potential to generate a loss. No gaining of a mat, just credits that are now gone. If nothing else you can use that item to gain a skill-up. Losing credits just means losing credits. Taking the above information you are left with one choice of profession that will give you an item that can be used -no matter what-, However the other choice can potentially leave you with less than you started. A simile between the two would be the equivalent of "If you don't succeed by at least an acceptable margin, You lose 15 -insert green material relevant to your profession here-" That is where the complaint is among Slicers. Yes Slicing needed a nerf, but it didn't need to be driven into the ground. It should not generate a loss as often as it does. The fact that you can fail a search, just like every other profession, should be enough. Personally I think as opposed to nerfing the boxes by 70% or whatever they did. They should have upped the mission costs by that much. Make the profit smaller as opposed to the risk larger. If you still fail to see why Slicers are QQing about the patch, then I can't help you. TL;DR: Cats born with extra toes are called 'Poly-dactyl'